The WSU News website and electronic newsletter is now part of WSU Insider, in a merger of the university’s major news sources.

Phil Weiler, vice president of marketing and communications, said it was part of a continued effort to create a more effective vehicle for communicating with WSU faculty and staff.

Weiler said he hopes WSU Insider will be the first place university employees go for news and information throughout the different campuses.

“We don’t want to focus on just Pullman news,” Weiler said. “This will give us an opportunity to showcase and communicate with employees from around the WSU system.”

David Wasson, the director for news and media relations, said WSU News was old and had an outdated infrastructure. WSU Insider is more visually pleasing and easier to search, he said.

Wasson said this was not a staffing or spending cut, but a way to improve WSU News after complaints from journalists who found the site difficult to search.

“WSU News was a chronological river of headlines that wasn’t user friendly,” Weiler said.

He said since WSU Insider launched in January, it had almost over taken WSU News in average daily traffic.

Weiler said that in the future, he wants WSU Insider to be the default spot for faculty to search for real-time news and information about employment topics such as insurance or new legislation.

He said the goal is for the site to be first to cover campus-related breaking news. He recounted an event in November when a malfunctioning belt on a mechanical device caused smoke to fill Bustad Hall in the College of Veterinary Medicine complex.

“We were able to inform the faculty that there were no flames and the building would resume normal operations,” Weiler said.

As part of the merger, the WSU News e-newsletter has been discontinued, and subscribers will receive the daily Insider email instead, according to a news release.